I Need You Like A Heart Needs a Beat (But That's Nothing New)
by SereneCalamity
Summary: Archie almost lost Jughead before, but he was lucky enough to get a second chance. Jarchie. Oneshot.


_I kinda like these two together. Haha. The title of the story comes from the song_ Apologize _by Timbaland and One Republic._

 _Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the title._

Archie Andrews chewed down on his lower lip as he looked over at the dark haired teenager, who was sprawled across the double bed in the corner of the room. They hadn't really talked in about an hour or so, but the feeling in the room was still completely comfortable. Archie was sitting on his bed, wearing a pair of distressed denim jeans and a light blue tee-shirt, with his legs folded underneath him. His guitar was resting across his thighs, with his notebook on the duvet beside him with a pencil on the blanket next to it. And then sitting on the beanbag in the corner of the room was Forsythe Pendleton Jones III, better known as Jughead, with his laptop balancing on his knees, fingers tapping across the keyboard.

Archie's eyes skimmed over his friend, over the couple of beauty marks on his otherwise flawless, tanned skin, over the floppy hair that was hanging down over his forehead and needing a haircut, over his thick eyelashes, which were fluttering as his eyes moved across his screen.

Jughead was only wearing loose sweatpants—which belonged to Archie—and a white singlet. Usually he wore a beanie, but when they were in the confines of Archie's bedroom, he let it come off. Archie loved it, loved looking at the thick locks of Jughead's hair all messy and soft, and loved knowing that Jughead trusted him enough to take off the beanie, which acted like some kind of safety blanket for him.

"I can feel you looking at me," Jughead spoke without even looking up from the laptop. "Are you bored?"

"No," Archie answered honestly.

"Are you hungry?" Jughead continued, his fingers still skimming over the keyboard quickly, a lot faster than Archie could really process. He pretty much typed with two fingers when he was put in front of a computer, but he guessed it would sort of be liked handing Jughead his guitar. They both had their separate skills.

"No," Archie repeated.

"Are you horny?" Jughead asked, and even though his head was tipped forward slightly, and the light in the room wasn't the best, Archie could still make out the slight tip of Jughead's lips and the smile in his voice.

"Maybe a little," he grinned and Jughead finally looked up, shaking his head and grinning back at him. Archie just smiled and then looked back down at the notebook that was laying on the bed next to him. He wasn't particularly horny, although given he was a seventeen year old guy, it was kind of his default setting. And if Jughead was keen, then Archie would be all for some fooling around, since his dad wouldn't be back until late tonight. But he was also comfortable with what they were doing now, just existing together in the same room together, doing their own separate things, but in each others space.

It was really weird how some things worked out.

Jughead and Archie hadn't even been talking this time last year, and Archie had missed his best friend like he was missing a limb. Like his heart was missing it's beat.

It hadn't happened on purpose, they just sort of drifted apart. They had been inseparable when they were kids, right up until they started high school. They stuck together for a while, and then they had just...Gone different ways. Archie got into sport, and it turned out that he was really good at it as well, and then suddenly most of his afternoons after school and his weekends were taken up with football. He got on well with the other guys on his team as well, and there were parties and movies that he got invited to pretty much every weekend as well. At first he had tried to involve Jughead in all of it as well, inviting him to all his games and whenever he was going out with the rest of the team. Jughead went to every single one of his football games, but he really wasn't interested in going out with the rowdy team after the game or going to parties or anything like that.

Archie didn't even realize that it had really happened until six months had passed and it hit him that he hadn't spoken to Jughead more than a few words. He went over to Elizabeth Coopers house, because Betty had been the third member of their Three Musketeers group, and had spoken to her about it. They weren't as close as they were before either, but it was a bit easier to keep in contact with Betty, because she lived right next door, they still walked together most mornings on the way to school.

Betty had told him that he needed to make more of an effort, not to get so caught up with his new friends that he forgot the old ones. She had kissed him on the cheek and said that they were getting older and they were bound to go in different directions, but they still needed to make sure they found time for the ones who had been there from the start. Then she had left, because she had a date with the new girl in their school, Veronica Lodge, leaving Archie to muse over how much had changed.

It took another few months before things began working between Archie and Jughead again, and before he knew it, almost a whole year had passed. A year of lost time. A year of growing up separate from each other.

They were both different when they came back together, and it took a while for them to catch up on one anothers lives. Jughead was still going to Riverdale High, but with his dad being a member of the _Southside Serpents,_ he spent a lot of time with other kids who lived on the Southside. He had toughened up a lot, and maybe he came off that way to a lot of other people, but Archie was still able to see that kind, soft guy underneath, who didn't wear the beanie because it was some fashion statement, but because his mum had given it to him when he was young, and it made him feel safe and connected to her.

When they had come back together, things had felt different.

Things _were_ different.

Archie had definitely discovered girls as he became more popular, being a quarterback on the football team did that for you. He had made out with a lot, slept with a couple of them, dated one, although it had ended when he walked in on her making out with Chuck Clayton. Apparently Jughead had discovered girls as well, but also guys. He hadn't officially dated anyone, but that didn't mean he hadn't explored several relationships.

It was weird, because when Jughead had told him, one night when they were sharing a few beers while watching one of those black and white movies that he loved so much, Archie wasn't jealous of the girls. He was jealous the of the guys that Jughead had kissed and touched.

And the more he thought about it, the more he knew that it wasn't just the friendship that Jughead was missing.

It was so much more than that.

He had kissed Jughead for the first time in his pick up truck, when he was dropping him off at the trailer park after school. Jughead had squinted at him after, saying that he didn't think the great Archie Andrews had been interested in him in that way. Archie had been breathing hard, because things were all messy in his head, his feelings and emotions were knotted together and he wasn't sure how to make sense of them all.

But he had known how he felt about Jughead.

It had been a bumpy road, but they had made it through it all, together.

And now they were here, six months later.

"You're still staring," Jughead noted, looking back up from his laptop again.

"Just thinking," Archie replied with a soft smile. Jughead put his laptop carefully on the desk next to him and got up from the beanbag, coming over to the bed. Archie shifted his guitar so that it was on the bed next to him. Jughead leaned down, his hand cupping Archie's cheek and softly brushing his thumb over the red heads cheek bone, before softly brushing his lips over his boyfriends.

"Thinking good things?" Jughead checked as their lips parted, but he didn't pull back, brushing his nose against Archie's, their foreheads pressed together.

"All good things," Archie assured him.

"Wanna share?" Jughead asked, his breath coming out in puffs against Archie's mouth and chin, making Jughead shiver and close his eyes again.

"I could always show you, rather than tell you," Archie grinned, reaching out with his arms and looping them around Jughead's waist, pulling him in closer. Jughead tipped onto the bed, and Archie rolled them over so that he was stretched over the top of Jughead. Jughead stared up at him, his beautiful green eyes blinking up at Archie. Archie stared down at him, and he must have been staring for a while because Jughead started to shift underneath him. Archie shifted the weight that he was putting on his hands, so that he could lift one of them up and card it through Jughead's hair.

It was just as soft as it looked.

Which Archie already knew, from previous experience.

"I am so...So glad that you're here, with me," Archie murmured, his hand warm against Jughead's face. "And I'm never letting anything come between us again." Jughead pulled his lower lip into his mouth, giving a wry smile.

"Never is _really_ long time there, Arch," Jughead said quietly.

"Damn right it is," Archie agreed with a grin, before leaning forward and bringing their lips back together. The kiss was slow as Archie tilted his head to the side, in the opposite direction to Jughead's. Archie's mouth opened and Jughead adjusted himself underneath the red head, wiggling around until their pelvis' were lined up and his hands rested loosely around Archie's back. Archie rolled his hips down lazily, pressing against Jughead, not in any rush to move past the kissing. "It's a really long time," Archie murmured as his lips moved down to Jughead's ear, nibbling on the outer shell.

He had almost lost Jughead before.

He wasn't about to loose his heart again.

 _Let me know what you think x_


End file.
